From 10th-13th September 2019, the project partners met in Bukhara to discuss what has been achieved so far and the next steps of the project. The meeting has been of paramount importance in view of establishing a common strategy to address the challenges of the project implementation and, in particular, it has been the place for active discussion on the content of the new curricula to be adopted in the partner institutes, in order to modernize their teaching systems and training programs in the field of paediatrics. As a matter of fact, from now on, the project will primarily focus on the development of a new set of contents for post-graduate paediatric training, in order to harmonise the Central Asian system with the European one.
In view of establishing the priorities to be addressed while drafting the new set of teachings, students and residents from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have been invited to join the meeting, where they could enrich the discussions with a highly valuable insiders’ point of view on the strenghts and weaknesses of the current system, and the most concrete needs in terms of curriculum development. Additionally, the meeting in Bukhara has been the occasion for having students and residents assessed by an external top level body from Brussel, namely the UEMS (Union of European Medical Specialists), which has tested them in order to evaluate their level of preparation via the current academic training system. The very same modality of assessment will be proposed at the end of the project lifetime again, to estimate the impact of ChildCA on curriculum development effectiveness.
Through discussions and workgroups, the project partners have combined the efforts of staff, professors, students, medical doctors, and European experts, making the best of the meeting.